Late-afternoon tidepool time.

One of the most precious rituals for me is tucking the kids into bed. I read to them, say prayers, sing, then tuck Ben into bed. I go back to Sam and chat about his day. We always end with “I love you more than . . .” and I think of something from the day. Like “all the toppings at Yogurt Mama piled up one on top of the other high into the sky.” He’ll then say “I love you more than all the toppings in all the galaxies in the universe!” or “…all the stars in the sky.” Tonight I said “…more than all the waves that will ever come into the tide pools.” We both thought about that for a minute, and realized that the waves will never stop coming. (For once I could beat Sam!) He said, “I’ll love you until the earth dies. Does it ever die?” I wonder what this routine will be like in 5 years, 10 years…There are so many times I can’t wait for the kids to be a little older to do certain things, like heli-biking for their birthday, or whatever. But these moments are the ones I want to last forever. On the days I feel like a bad mom, an impatient mom (I have been lately, tired of repeating myself), I am thankful that I have so many days to try again, to be better. I don’t have to wait for the weekends to have that time to hit the reset button. The days are few before I turn them over to someone else…unless we decide to homeschool and live out of an uber-cool Airstream travel trailer!!!